


Happy Birthday, Mafuyu

by DawnWillBreakSoon



Category: Given (Anime), Given (Manga)
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Healing, Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Birthday Mafuyu Satou, Lingering Grief, M/M, Mafuyu's birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:29:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29752725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnWillBreakSoon/pseuds/DawnWillBreakSoon
Summary: Uenoyama, like Kaji, may (try to) look tough, cool, and unaffected, but he is very sweet to Mafuyu. Especially on his boyfriend's birthday.Mafuyu still faces some of the lingering effects of grief every day. He's happy with the way he is healing, though, and Ritsuka is helping the healing process a lot.
Relationships: Satou Mafuyu/Uenoyama Ritsuka
Comments: 4
Kudos: 88





	Happy Birthday, Mafuyu

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote and edited this in three hours after inspiration struck and I realized it was the day before Mafuyu's birthday, so here! Have a little fluff about Mafuyu spending a lowkey birthday with Ritsuka.
> 
> Inspired by seeing the Given Events post about Mafuyu appreciation day on Tumblr.

Mafuyu opened his eyes to the dim room. For a moment, everything was soft. The haze of sleep lingered in his mind, preventing any thoughts from fully breaking through. Mafuyu took a deep breath, breathing in the chill air outside his warm blankets before pulling them over his head and burrowing into the thick bedding. He lets himself float in the peaceful quiet that doesn’t quite reach reality.

Until Kedama manages to jump onto the bed. The small dog hops onto his back, startling him awake, then walks around to his face and gives a small bark.

“Not yet,” Mafuyu mumbles to the dog, dragging his hand out of his cocoon of blankets to pet him. He tries to get him to lie down beside him so he can go back to sleep, but the Pom insists on hopping back up repeatedly and nosing against Mafuyu’s head when he closes his eyes.

“Fine,” he groans, pushing himself up to sitting and drawing the blankets with him. Two slices of bright sunlight cut across the bedroom floor, defining the edges of his thick gray curtains and indicating it is later than he thought. Thankfully, it’s a weekend, so it doesn’t really matter.

The glimpse of pale light brings the rest of reality into sharp focus. Too many thoughts and emotions crowd into Mafuyu’s mind at once-

_It’s cold-_

_Yuki is gone-_

_Kedama needs to be walked-_

_I made it another day-_

_Today is my birthday-_

_I’ll talk to Ritsuka soon._

_Pain-_

_Regret-_

_Amusement-_

_Relief-_

_Exhaustion-_

_Determination._

He takes a deep breath and holds onto the final thought and feeling, rubbing the sleep from his eyes fiercely. Kedama is still hopping around the bed, and he sinks one hand into his fur. The repetitive motion of petting the soft, clean pup allows his head to clear and focus on the first thing he needs to do.

Finally, Mafuyu realizes that somewhere toward the foot of his bed, his phone is buzzing. It has been for a while. He fumbles for it and answers the call.

“Hey, Mafuyu?” Ritsuka says in the phone, sounding like he’s been powerwalking and is almost out of breath, “Can you come outside for a minute? I brought the sweater you left at the studio yesterday. I’d come up but I know Kedama would bark, and you said your mom is working nights now, so…I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“Mm, yeah, but you’re fine,” Mafuyu says tiredly, forcing himself out of the blankets, I’ll be down in a minute.” He clicks off the phone and pulls on the first clean clothes he comes across before grabbing Kedama’s leash and his key and heading outside.

It’s cold when they step onto the landing, but not frigid. The snow has almost all melted away for the season. Mafuyu hurries Kedama down the stairs to where Ritsuka waits by a tree on the small lawn. He’s staring down at his phone as they approach, so Mafuyu takes the chance to take in his sleep black hair and sharp features. Even the hunch of his shoulders and the way he has one hand in his pocket, Mafuyu’s sweater looped through his arm, screams ‘cool’. 

Kedama’s barking tells Ritsuka they are close, and his looks up with a smile on his face that grows when he sees Mafuyu.

“Going on a walk?” he asks, handing Mafuyu the sweater.

“Yeah, and it’s colder than I expected,” Mafuyu replies, “here, hold Kedama’s leash so I can put this on.” Ritsuka takes the leash and Mafuyu pulls on the sweater. “Want to join us?”

“Can I pick where we go?” Ritsuka asks. Mafuyu laughs.

“As long as you don’t take us someplace dangerous,” he says. Ritsuka rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, well…come on.”

“Where are we going?” Mafuyu asks.

“You’ll see,” Ritsuka answers with a smile, keeping hold of Kedama’s leash and leading them back to the main sidewalk.

“I need to know where you’re taking my furchild,” Mafuyu states. Ritsuka grins.

“You’ll see,” he says again.

“But Uenoyama-kun,” Mafuyu says, just short of a whine. That gets him to duck his head for a second, and Mafuyu can just make out the curse under his breath before he sighs and answers.

“I thought it would be fun to go to the bakery a few blocks over, since it’s your birthday,” he says. Mafuyu stops, surprised.

“You don’t have to do anything for my birthday,” he says. He and his mom already celebrated a few days ago. They both had the night off, so she took him to his favorite restaurant for a quiet celebration.

“I know,” Ritsuka says with a smile over his shoulder, “but I’m still learning this whole boyfriend thing, and I realized I don’t know what flavor you like best. So I need you to come with me to pick out something sweet for your birthday this year.” 

_Yuki would’ve gotten his own favorite flavor and then told me it was mine, too_.

The comparison shoots through his mind before Mafuyu can even register it. _Damn_. A swirl of emotions rush up inside, and he takes a deep breath to calm them. A sudden gust carries Ritsuka’s scent back to Mafuyu, increasing the effect of his breaths. Then Ritsuka is taking a step closer to him, asking him something, but he can’t quite make out the words over the ringing in his ears.

A weight on his ankle makes him look down, and Kedama’s small _yip!_ brings him back to the present.

“Are you okay?” Ritsuka’s brows are scrunched with concern. Mafuyu nods.

“Yeah,” he says, “I’m okay.” Uenoyama ruffles Mafuyu’s already-messy hair.

“Do you want to go to the bakery with me?” he asks. Mafuyu’s heart is echoing his last word with each beat, _o-kay, o-kay, o-kay_ , and he realizes it is truer than he would’ve thought. He grins and basks in the effects of spending time with his boyfriend.

“I’d love to,” he says.

-

An hour later the boys are hurrying back to Mafuyu’s apartment with two small boxes of cupcakes. Mafuyu didn’t know which flavor he wanted any more than Ritsuka did, so Ritsuka had asked for as many samples as the bakery would allow. They sat at a small table on the sidewalk, Kedama’s leash tied to the leg, and shared bites of cake until they had tried them all, and still they couldn’t decide which was best. Mafuyu liked everything sweet, and Ritsuka preferred the bolder flavors. There was plenty of overlap in their tastes, but no clear winner. In the end, Ritsuka bought a variety of brightly decorated cupcakes.

There was a note from Mafuyu’s mom on the kitchen counter when they returned. Apparently she had run out to do some errands, and would be back only briefly before going to work. As much as he loved his mom, Mafuyu totally didn’t mind getting to spend the day alone with Ritsuka. He laughed louder at Mafuyu’s jokes when no one else was around, and was less hesitant to run his hand over his arm or let something sweet slip out of his mouth despite his uber-cool personality. Mafuyu didn’t need these things to know that Ritsuka was in love with him, but it was so nice to see him be carefree like this.

When evening came they ended up seated on the floor in Mafuyu’s room working on the chord transitions that always seemed to give him trouble. Ritsuka had not brought his own guitar, so he sat cross-legged in front of Mafuyu, counting off and watching his fingers as he shifted them from one shape to the next.

“No, not quite like that,” he said at one point, “it should be more like this.” He arched his own fingers around an invisible guitar in the proper shape. Mafuyu nodded and tried again, but again was just off.

“Here,” Ritsuka said, leaning forward. He gently took Mafuyu’s left hand and arched each of the fingers to their proper place.

“Do you see how that feels?” he asked. Mafuyu’s heart beat fast at Ritsuka’s touch.

“Yeah,” he said, glad that his voice didn't shake. He did another run through, but got caught on the same spot. Finally, Uenoyama stood up and then crouched behind him.

“Play it slowly,” he said, putting his left hand around Mafuyu’s to guide his fingers. Mafuyu could feel the low rumble from his chest and his breath on his ear as he spoke. His back suddenly felt like it had a thousand raw nerves on it, even though Ritsuka was only touching his hand. They worked through the progression slowly, Ritsuka adjusting his fingers gently until Mafuyu figured out how to make his muscles form the shapes on his own.

“There you go!” Ritsuka exclaimed when Mafuyu got it on his own, “I knew you would get it.” He ruffled Mafuyu’s hair, and Mafuyu leaned back against his chest.

“Don’t get up,” Mafuyu asked with a sweet smile on his face, “this is nice.” Anything that had remained of Ritsuka’s cool mannerisms faded at that, as he felt Mafuyu lean into him and speak with a voice that sounded so genuinely happy. He shifted from his crouched position to lean against the bed, Mafuyu also setting aside his guitar and readjusting so that he could keep leaning against Ritsuka’s chest.

“This is very nice,” Ritsuka agreed, twining the fingers he had previously guided. Mafuyu felt his heart swell as he sat there listening to Ritsuka breathe and feeling the rise and fall of his chest. The feeling filled him up inside, and although he didn’t have the words for it just then, he knew that somehow this moment was stitching together more of the pieces inside which he had once thought permanently shattered.

Meanwhile, an idea was growing in Ritsuka’s head. The apartment was dark, as the sun had just set, but as cheesy as it sounded he knew that the light of his life was still as bright as ever.

“Hey,” he said against the top of Mafuyu’s head, “you ready for dessert?” Mafuyu nodded. “Let’s eat it on the balcony.”

“Are you sure?” Mafuyu asked, “it’s pretty cold out there.”

“We’ll stay warm,” Ritsuka said much more confidently than he felt.

“Okay,” Mafuyu said, returning to the cupcake boxes, “Which one do you want?” Ritsuka followed him into the kitchen.

“You pick first,” he said, “they’re for your birthday, after all.” Mafuyu picked up a chocolate cupcake with black and white icing.

“This one reminds me of your guitar,” he said, “you should have it.” Ritsuka accepted the cupcake.

“Okay, but what about you?” he insisted. Mafuyu continued to stare at the cupcakes. “How about this one?” Ritsuka finally picked up a strawberry chocolate chip cupcake decorated with bright pink and white fondant cherry blossoms and offered it to Mafuyu, “it’s the only one as bright as you.”

“Don’t let Kaji-san hear you say that,” Mafuyu joked. Ritsuka playfully bumped his shoulder and rolled his eyes.

“Come on,” he groaned when Mafuyu took the cupcake. On the empty balcony, the boys sat with their backs against the cold brick of the building and ate their cupcakes quietly. Ritsuka’s only lasted three bites. Mafuyu drew his out by savoring each of the tiny flowers individually.

“This is so good,” he moaned, “you’re the best.” Ritsuka wiped the crumbs off his palms.

“Remember that next week when we’re in the studio,” he joked.

When the dessert was gone, Mafuyu burrowed into Ritsuka’s side and Ritsuka slipped his arm around him. Even though they were in the city, a few stars were visible over the buildings, and they enjoyed pretending they knew what they were and telling each other completely made-up things about the constellations. True to Ritsuka’s word, Mafuyu didn’t feel the winter’s cold as he laughed and cuddled Ritsuka.

“I know it’s cliché,” Ritsuka said as the conversation waned, his voice bordering on husky, “but, Mafuyu, you are brighter and more beautiful than all the stars to me. You keep my world moving at a crazy pace, and I’m so thankful for you.” Mafuyu felt more of the pieces inside fit back together. He didn’t say anything back at first, just let the words sink in and the feeling inside grow. A minute later he sat up and turned to sit in Ritsuka’s lap so that he could face him directly.

“I love you, Ritsuka,” he said softly. He stared at his ocean eyes a moment longer, then leaned in to press his lips against Ritsuka’s and hope that he could feel the love blooming inside of him. Ritsuka’s arms came up around him as he pressed the kiss slowly but intentionally deeper.

“I love you too,” Ritsuka whispered when they broke apart, one hand warm on the exposed delicate skin at the back of his neck.

When he was younger, Mafuyu had needed Yuki in order to know who he was. Now, he didn’t need Ritsuka to define him. He was helping Mafuyu to put the pieces of himself back together, but this time Mafuyu was the one deciding where and how they went. He was rebuilding himself. He longed to have Ritsuka ever closer as they continued to kiss and touch - warm breath on air-cooled skin, cold hands trembling and tangling and learning – but it was a longing that had more to do with expressing himself rather than creating himself.

When it got to be too cold outside they stumbled in together and curled up on Mafuyu’s bed. Eyelids heavy, breathing comfortably ragged, flesh and souls drawn tight, they laid there in the dark. The last thing Mafuyu heard before drifting to sleep was Ritsuka’s voice.

“Happy birthday, Mafuyu.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow this ended up feeling a little heavier than the other fics I've written even though it's about Mafuyu's birthday. I might try to extend the part where they're trying all of the cupcake flavors later, but for now, it is what it is! Thanks for reading!


End file.
